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24 MARINE REVIEW. THE CANAL OF THE TWO SEAS. Discussing the proposed canal through France under the title "The Canal of the Two Seas," Engineer of London says: 3 Under the above title an old maritime project, surpassing in mag- nitude and importance all similar engineering undertakings, has been revived and is at present under serious consideration in France. It has for its object the construction of a canal from the Atlantic to the Medit- erranean, or localising the route more precisely, from the waters of the Gulf of Lyons to the Bay of Biscay. The southern entrance of this mag- nificent inland waterway will, it is proposed, be at Narbonne. After gain- ing the basin of the Garonne, which it will follow for a certain part of its course, it will take the line of the Gironde to its mouth. It will have a total length of 312 miles. It may be here stated, for the sake of com- parison, that the lengths of the best known ship canals are as follows: The Suez, ninety-eight miles; the Baltic, sixty-one; the Manchester, thirty-five; the Terneuzen, twenty; the Amsterdam, sixteen; the Bruges, eight; and the Corinth, four miles. Of all these, the Suez and the Corinth are the only two which have open channels, completely unimpeded by locks. The Panama canal was intended to have a length of forty-six miles, and 170 miles is the length of the course marked out for the Nicar- agua. . Apart from the magnitude of the projected undertaking, it possesses a very considerable amount of interest, not only for ourselves, but also for the rest of Europe. Once constructed, it would be no longer neces- sary for the fleets of the northern European powers to run the gauntlet [July 3 opened for traffic a few years afterwards. It was not, however, until the year 1900 that, for the first time, the receipts paid the expenses, amount- ing to £105,000. It is expected that when the returns for last year are compiled, the revenue will exceed the expenditure by about £10,000. Nothing is received from the passage of men-of-war, as they are not liable to navigation dues. The promoters of the great French enterprise are employing all their efforts to obtain an official declaration that the con- struction of the proposed canal is d'utilite publique. That once accom- plished, the first step, which costs so much, is removed, and the actual prosecution of the work materially facilitated. The cost of the whole undertaking, which at present can be but approximately estimated, is put at fifty-two millions of our money. COMPLIMENT TO NEW YORK NAUTICAL COLLEGE. Clement A. Griscom, Jr., manager of the American line, pays a com- pliment to the New York Nautical College in the July number of Suc- cess. Following is the final paragraph in his article to young men on the "American Merchant Marine as a Career": _ "For young men who have an opportunity, a supplementary course of study in the New York Nautical College is of great advantage. Many. of our officers go to the college to brush up in the science of navigation, and nearly all the yacht owners in New York harbor have been instructed there. Navigation is taught with the aid of a complete set of working in- struments. Every student learns the use of the compass, the navigator's chart, the log, the chronometer, the quadrant, the octant and the sextant. (Photograph by J. D. Givens, San Francisco, Cal.) UNITED STATES TRANSPORT GRANT. In the San Francisco-Manila Service. along our shores to reach the Mediterranean. The importance of Gibral- tar would be seriously diminished. The western gate of the great sea would no longer be all ours. What the Baltic canal is to Germany, so would that of the two seas be to France, but to a much greater extent. It is estimated that in a voyage from Havre to Marseilles and Genoa, via the French canal, there would be a saving of about 1,000 miles, in com- parison with the present route through the straits of Gibraltar. All ships voyaging from northern ports to the Mediterranean and the east would benefit to the same extent. Owing to the great differences of level encountered along the course of the proposed maritime works it is not possible to avoid the introduction of locks. Their number is rather for- midable, amounting as it does to twenty-six. But even allowing from half to three-quarters of an hour for a big ship to get through, the time lost would not appreciably affect the saving between the two above-men- tioned routes. It will be aflowed that the security of the transit through the canal is a consideration and counts for something, although not to quite the same extent as it would have done in the days of sailing ships. Great ship canals may be regarded from two general points of view--a strategic and a commercial one. In the present instance there may, per- haps, be doubts respecting the future financial success of the scheme, but none regarding its great strategic value and importance, It is worth noting that. the sinister predictions that the Baltic canal would possess no commercial value have been completely falsified. Yet this was in every sense a military canal. It was commenced in 1886, and He learns how to calculate the latitude and the longitude of a ship by the sun, moon, planets and stars. He becomes familiar, too, with weather- ology and the laws of storms. The seamanship department of the college is equipped with large working models of catboats, sloops, cutters, yawls, schooners, brigs, barks, and ships, perfectly rigged in every detail, afford- ing opportunity for handling and learning all the names of the various parts of fore-and-aft yachts and merchant vessels, as well as the particu- lars of square-rigged pleasure craft and cargo vessels. A room is set apart as a rigging loft and furnished with cordage, tools, blocks, pin rails, and all appliances for marlin-spike work, and in the model room masts are stepped, spars sent aloft, standing rigging set up, blocks hung, rigging rove off, and sails bent, set, reefed, and furled in an orthodox manner." The American Steel & Wire Co. certainly received its share of awards from the South Carolina Inter State and West Indian Exposition. Gold medals were awarded for merchant iron and steel, cold-drawn steel shaft- ing, wire nails, rail bonds, wire rope, machinery and appliances for draw- ing wire, springs and spring wire, copper, horse and mule shoes, iron and steel, and aluminum wire; silver medals for bicycle and automobile spokes, rolled wagon skeins, underground and overhead wires and cables and metallurgy of zinc; bronze medals for music wire, coal. and coke, bale ties, chemicals and colors. The medals of gold, silver and bronze rep--- resent the highest awards in each class,